


The Plant That Doesn't Bloom

by lesyeuxverts



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Season/Series 08 Spoilers, the pilgrim's way, unrequited feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 03:42:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2677727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesyeuxverts/pseuds/lesyeuxverts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James has a journey to make.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Plant That Doesn't Bloom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magnetic_pole](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetic_pole/gifts).



> Title and ending quote are from Pablo Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII

He has walked this road before, James has. He has gone down the same lines of thought, wearying himself and the thoughts equally, wearing lines that become grooves that become ruts. 

Poised, balanced, entrenched, perched – he is all things, at all times, he is trying. He is trying too hard, and he knows it, can see it in the faces of the constables around him. He can also see it in Lewis's kind face. He has overshot the mark.

He is trying too hard, he is failing, falling.

There are more lines in Lewis's face than there were at the beginning of this – the beginning that was in an airport, a cemetery, a crime scene. There are more lines, and James has put some of them there, with laughter and worries and the tense quiet hours of waiting. 

To wait, to be patient, to be kind. James has never found any of these easy.

He will walk the Camino de Santiago – he will walk along his own way, find his own path. Somewhere, there will be a space along the coast, among the scallop shells, between the earth and the sky, a space for his soul to breathe. 

When he closes his eyes, he can hear the sound of the sea. He can smell the salt air and feel the sting of it deep in his lungs, deep enough to change and purify, sweet-sharp. 

He will think of Robert Lewis, and he will let him go – will let him go, and will not mourn a loss, for Robbie is for Laura, and James – has not lost anything. He will discover for himself his purpose. 

James has walked this road before. He knows his pace.

_I love you as one loves certain obscure things,  
secretly, between the shadow and the soul._


End file.
